


sad to say, i'm already yours

by bad_drive



Category: Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Cliche with a Twist, Drama, F/F, Friends With Benefits, Homophobic Language, M/M, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:55:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22675951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bad_drive/pseuds/bad_drive
Summary: We're together, but we're not together. And it doesn't even make sense...at least how this whole situation came about. But I like her so much, and I always want to be with her... I don't think I can be anyone else but hers even when she's not mine. That's what really sad.
Relationships: Bae Joohyun | Irene/Kang Seulgi, Kang Seulgi/Kim Jisoo (BLACKPINK), Kim Junmyeon | Suho/Oh Sehun, Park Sooyoung | Joy/Son Seungwan | Wendy
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

Irene was depicted to be heartless.

The cold-hearted, silent bitch almost everyone on this campus thought her to be.

The steel-like piercing gaze she would always hold.

She only allowed a select few to surround her at all times—a few of her close girl friends and this handsome, charming boy everyone believed to be her boyfriend.

Yet, no matter what other people thought her as, no matter how rude and cold she came off to be, the public was _madly_ attracted to her.

Like, _very_ attracted.

There was no one else like her—a cold beauty, she was. The head bitch in charge of her posse. The one who called the shots and practically controlled the student body.

In fact, those who even had a spare second of a glance from her deemed themselves to be lucky because “Irene noticed them.”

…

When in reality, Irene probably didn’t notice them at all and was blindly glancing around due to poor eyesight.

Irene wasn’t heartless.

She wasn’t that cold-hearted, rude, silent bitch a lot of the other students thought her to be.

She just didn’t have that much expression to show, was a lot more reserved than people thought, and was actually kind of scared to start up conversations.

But this reputation that was built for her lasted for a long time, and she thought it would be too late to even try and remove this perception people had on her.

I mean, if people didn’t try to bother you due to this reputation, why ruin it? Irene preferred to be alone most of the time anyway, but it wasn’t like she was lonely.

She had Yeri, the snarky, little rascal who could get away from anything with the snap of her fingers. All she had to do was act cute in front of her uncle, the school’s principal, and she was let off the hook just like _that_. It wasn’t like she was committing any harm to anyone anyway… (maybe reputation-wise, but those kind of people usually deserved it). Irene could always count on Yeri to bring out the child persona within her because a lot of the pranks and jokes she pulled were ones that made her laugh her ass off.

She also had Joy, the tall, alluring girl who could talk her head off. The gossiper of the school. The one who had all the intel on every _single_ person on this campus, teachers included. You wanted to know who was dating who? You wanted to know who was out? You wanted to know which student was fucking which teacher for a good grade? She knew it all. Of course, she would have some information on Irene and the others in their circle, but it wasn’t like she would share their secrets. It was much more fun sharing others, actually.

Yeri and Joy combined, however, was another whole world to be in (and Irene didn’t think she could survive it any longer). Gossiping pranksters? Irene would always think twice to do anything against them. Imagine the wrath she would feel, even as head bitch in charge.

“Anyone wanna go clubbing tonight?” offered Joy. She was on her phone (like always), scrolling through feeds, getting new messages, and whatnot. “Someone I know got me a really good fake ID and I can make y’all some, too.”

It was like that.

_“Someone I know got me…”_

_“Someone I know knows someone who…”_

_“Someone I know told me that…”_

It was like they knew if the juicy news got to Joy, it was going to spread like wildfire. It didn’t matter if it was true or not, but the gossip queen did try her best to weave out all the false, pointless rumors.

“We have a test tomorrow for third period, Joy. You really want to go clubbing when you most likely haven’t studied yet?”

That was Wendy, Miss Goody-Two Shoes. They needed some moral, good balance in their group, and who was better to do that than Wendy? She kept them in check most of the times with their studies and “school crimes.” Though, she was a little corrupt. Acting as the student council president, she effortlessly allowed Yeri and/or Joy to be let off the hook if they were to be reprimanded by the strict teachers and students, who were the outliers and didn’t fall for their group’s charms like everyone else did. She understood they meant no harm, so might as well abuse a little bit of her presidential power, right? It wasn’t like she had much to do anyway but be the face of the school.

“Aw, c’mon, Wendy. As much as Joy goes out late at night, she still gets pretty high marks, remember?”

Suho, the token boy of the group. The handsome, charming one who never failed to send people down onto their knees after a blinding grin. A lot of the guys were extremely envious of him. Constantly being around five pretty girls and getting their attention? How did he do it? Better yet, how did he get Irene as a _girlfriend_? They had to be together, they said. They are always side to side, they said. They always sat next to each other and smiled at each other, they said.

 _Damn flirts_ , they said.

Well, what they didn’t know was that Suho was in the closet and he was Irene’s cousin. The group knew of his sexual orientation, but because he was much closer to Irene due to relation and being the same age, he confided into her a lot. The secrets they had in the palms of their hands, the late-night outings they shared with the others. What started off as “please don’t tell my mom” turned into “don’t say anything to your mom about us going out and my mom won’t know as well.”

Wendy scoffed and glanced at Joy from the corner of her eyes. “Yeah, and I wonder how she got those high marks?”

Joy finally looked up from her phone and slammed it down onto the cafeteria table with a loud thud. The entire group became quiet among the loud chatters of the other students eating.

“You really going to start?” muttered Joy. “What do you take me as? Do you think I’m cheating and getting people to send me answers? Or do you think I’m fucking the teacher or something, hm?”

“I’m not accusing you of any of that,” Wendy firmly stated.

“Well, it sure as hell sounded like you implied I don’t study and cheat my way through the system,” Joy shot back with a glare.

Before the tension grew stronger and the others became more awkward, Joy felt a warm hand on her bare shoulder, and she immediately knew it was an attempt to calm down her short temper. Wendy tore her gaze away from the fuming, taller girl and took a deep breath of her own.

“Joy, none of us are doubting your academic abilities. We all know you wanted to be a teacher when you grow up, and how else would you do that if you don’t study well, right? You both need to apologize to each other—Wendy for giving attitude and false implication, and Joy for being passive aggressive. You both said you had problems on doing that, so how can we help each other if we’re just going to straight up attack?”

And last but not least, sweet, stunning, charismatic Seulgi. Onlookers would say she was the mediator of the group, the one who could effortlessly feel the tension of a situation better than anyone else. She rivalled Irene in terms of popularity of this school because of how approachable and kind she was to every single person out there. But it was only a friendly competition among the two, considering how they belonged to the same friend group.

Holding the title of campus sweetheart, her eyes were always in crescents and her smile was always wide, making others feel at ease in her presence. She also had her own smooth way with words and could easily charm herself into anything and _out_ of anything. The group had fallen victim plenty of times to her, but lately, it seemed as though they knew better. Well, except for Irene.

Irene’s chest warmed up at Seulgi’s words and her actions of comforting Joy, just like how it would every time Seulgi opened her mouth or did something.

Either to break the group out of their awkward tension or to satisfy Seulgi, Wendy and Joy finally apologized to each other. The group gradually returned to eating their food, and just to lighten up the atmosphere even more, Suho began to animatedly talk about a boy group, EXO, he was getting into. It worked because Seulgi immediately jumped onto the topic as well, gushing over how well they dance, and Joy raved over how good-looking they were.

It was enough to get them back to how they were at the beginning of lunch.

**

“Hello, gorgeous.”

Said gorgeous girl turned from the contents of her locker to the other person leaning on their side next to her. Irene couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the cheesy greeting from the one and only Seulgi Kang, who had been smiling this whole time.

“Hi, weirdo,” Irene greeted back.

As she was grabbing a textbook for her next class, Seulgi stood behind her and gently placed her hands on her hips.

“We still on for tonight?” she delicately whispered into Irene’s ear.

Shivers ran up from Irene’s spine to her neck. She almost closed her eyes at Seulgi’s voice, hearing it repeat over and over again in her head. It was times like this where Seulgi had an effect on her.

“Of course,” Irene managed to breathe out. “My place, right?”

“Actually, can we do my place instead?” asked Seulgi. “I got a new mattress and it’s so comfortable.”

When Irene turned around with a tiny pout, Seulgi glanced at both directions before cooing at her and grabbing her cheeks. She placed a chaste kiss on Irene’s forehead.

“Aw, baby. I’ll drive us, don’t worry. We’ll grab some boba along the way,” she said, as if she knew Irene’s main concern was the distance from here to Seulgi’s house.

While everyone lived within comfortable and close distance of the school, Seulgi was the only one who lived about thirty minutes away, an hour if traffic was terrible. She had moved in the middle of the school year because her mother relocated to a better office location that promoted her. Better pay, better living situation. It was the optimal choice for her family. Seulgi would have also relocated to the high school in that area, but since it was their senior year with only a couple months left to finish, she sucked it up and decided to bear the traffic.

“Okay. I’ll pay, then.”

Seulgi grinned at the offer.

“Okay. See you later, beautiful.”

Irene felt her cheeks warm up when Seulgi bid farewell and jogged down the hallway to get to her next class.

Yup.

Seulgi always knew what to do.

**

Irene couldn’t say that they were girlfriends, however.

They had no label on their relationship. Even they, themselves, didn’t know what to call each other. “Friends” seemed to suffice to others, but they were so much more than that when it was just between them.

The others thought they were just the usual pair of best friends who had each other’s back and hung out almost every single day. While they were right on that part, there was also a secret between Seulgi and Irene that they couldn’t bear to tell everyone else.

Even currently with bare skins gliding against sheets, bodies slightly caving in and being comforted by Seulgi’s new mattress, and delicate sounds and affectionate words hanging off of bruised lips, Irene still couldn’t say that they were girlfriends.

One final, prolonged moan relieved itself from Irene’s lips, and she gradually descended back down onto the bed. Her chest heaved as she attempted at catching her breath through her mouth.

Seulgi rose up against her body to plant a sweet kiss on her forehead and dump herself onto the empty space next to her.

The tension and the mood was still in place, so Irene rolled over until she was almost on top of Seulgi’s body to kiss her deeply on the mouth. Seulgi gratefully returned the kiss, placing a hand on her bare waist, caressing her smooth, fair skin.

“Amazing like always…” Irene whispered against her lips. “Thank you.”

Seulgi smirked at her. If Irene didn’t know better, she would have thought she inflated Seulgi’s ego with how she smiled.

“I think we can go for a few more,” she said lowly. “It’s only six.”

Irene gulped. Before she could even reply or completely react, she was already on her back once again with Seulgi in between her legs.

Yeah.

There was no way in the world that they were just friends.

**

Irene ended up staying over at Seulgi’s place that night, bare bodies entangled beneath sheets and all. They didn’t bother opening a textbook and checking their online discussion board for school. When it is literally just the two of them in a room together with all the privacy in the world, then it is only going to be about just the two of them.

Which was probably why Irene heaved one of the deepest sighs she could have mustered in her life.

Seulgi threw a glance at her from the driver’s seat. They were on the way to school with twenty minutes left to spare until the first period started.

“What’s wrong?”

Irene closed her eyes and rested her head against the headrest. “I totally forgot to meet up last night for the group presentation I have for government class.”

“Shoot… Would you be okay? Are they mad at you?”

“I don’t know,” Irene mumbled. “I guess I’ll find out during fifth period.”

Seulgi grimaced and gently rubbed Irene’s thigh, mumbling an apology. They both knew all too well the reason behind their lack of presence on social media that night. This wasn’t even the first time it happened.

Irene didn’t reach an unexplainable level of frustration because she missed a scheduled meet-up, but it had set her back a few notches for not only her government class but all the other classes as well. An entire day without doing any reading or preparation for upcoming exams… It was a _really_ bold move during this time of the academic year.

“I’ll help you catch up on things,” Seulgi offered.

They were pulling into the school’s parking lot. Since school was starting in ten minutes, there were only so many parking spots left when the high school seniors and campus staff shared the lot. It also didn’t help that the juniors were starting to learn how to drive.

Irene snorted. “As if. We both know we wouldn’t be helping each other like that.”

“Weeeelllllll…” Seulgi started, pulling into one of the few parking spaces at the back of the lot.

Irene wasn’t wrong… But she didn’t have to shoot down Seulgi’s idea like that.  
“Well what?” Irene pushed. She grabbed her backpack from the floor of Seulgi’s car and hopped out. “The minute we’re behind closed doors, we end up making out and having sex.”

“Well, I mean, it doesn’t have to always be like that, Irene.”

Irene only raised an eyebrow at Seulgi with crossed arms. The latter stared at the stern expression for a few seconds.

Seulgi’s shoulders slumped. “Okay, yes, it was what we initially agreed to, but…we can make some adjustments, then?”

“We _can_ , but would we follow up with it?”

“We really need to learn some self-control then, huh?” Seulgi joked.

Irene did not say anymore and only rolled her eyes. She felt Seulgi’s hand on hers a few moments later, the taller girl smiling down at her as they made their way through the parking lot to the school gates. It was a rare occasion for Seulgi to initiate an intimate gesture like this, so Irene cherished it as much as she could until they step foot onto the curb.

Because, like always, a second before their presence was made known, Seulgi would let go almost immediately.

And Irene would never be able to say anything about it because their friends were there—Seulgi was pulled into a conversation that they believed concern her enough and Suho threw an arm around Irene as a greeting. Seulgi was always a few steps ahead with whomever was speaking to her (this time it was Yeri) and Irene was always a few steps behind next to Suho (who would be talking about how cute this boy in his English class was). Seulgi would always think that she didn’t do anything wrong the next time they meet up for lunch and Irene would have to pretend it didn’t hurt…until the next time Seulgi committed another intimate gesture towards her and Irene would forgive her.

It was a never-ending cycle.

One that started at the beginning of summer break.


	2. Chapter 2

The biggest thing that the group had planned for the summer was travelling. They were going to travel to Seattle, Washington, sightsee a little bit, take a train up to Canada, and come back down to Seattle. Everyone was super excited because this trip was well-deserved—finally taking a break from school, naggy family members, and obsessive teenagers. There was so much to see in Seattle and Canada, not to mention that most of Wendy’s childhood was in Canada, so she most likely remembered a few touristy areas they could visit.

When they reached their stay for the remainder of the trip in Seattle, they all couldn’t help but flop down onto the couches after being in an airplane for longer than they were used to. It was a decent sized, one-story Airbnb that they rented for two weeks; it had two master bedrooms with conjoining bathrooms, a spacious living room, and a kitchen right next to it with a bar attached from the living room overlooking the kitchen.

“I’m so tired,” Yeri groaned as she rested her head back against the three-seat couch. “But I’m so excited to go out tomorrow!”

“Same. There are so many cool spots that I see others have been going to,” said Joy.

She was already scrolling through her feeds on Instagram and Twitter to be inspired by aesthetic spots so she could upload some of her own. She had even posted on Facebook a few days ago asking for recommendations, to which there were over hundreds of likes and comments, courtesy of having over two thousand friends.

“How do you all wanna set up the rooms?” asked Wendy.

It was decided that Wendy, Joy, and Seulgi were in one room and Irene, Yeri, and Suho were in the other. It was befitting—Seulgi was there to mediate between Wendy and Joy just in case their unusual clashes ever occur, and Yeri and Suho could talk about the hot K-Pop male idols they were into with Irene only smiling from time to time. Sometimes she felt like they were her kids.

The five days that they were here in Seattle, Seulgi and Irene found themselves constantly paired up when it came to group settings. Wendy and Joy were on and off, but it was usually Wendy and Suho together and then Joy and Yeri. It wasn’t like they weren’t close beforehand, but Irene felt as though she had gotten a lot closer to Seulgi that summer.

They sat next to each other at restaurants, walked side by side from one location to another, snuggled up close together back at their stay in Seattle when they were doing homemade meals, watching a movie in the living room, or playing a few board games as a group.

It came to the point where Irene would initiate subtle gestures. Before she didn’t really do much, only clinging onto someone by the arm. She is comfortable doing it to Suho, because he is her cousin, and Wendy and Yeri, since she perceives them as her younger sisters. Joy and Seulgi, on the other hand, don’t really give off a family vibe to her; however, they aren’t any less than the other three.

Thus, she decided to hold Seulgi by the crook of her arm, place a hand on the closest shoulder, or stand very close to her because there was this unexplainable feeling that she had for Seulgi.

It wasn’t just friendship.

She didn’t know when the line had been crossed from just friends to something more, but Irene didn’t see Seulgi as a mere friend anymore.

She was lost in how charming her brown eyes were, finding herself spiraling down into a trance whenever they exchanged glances.

Her chest warmed up at the sight of her wide grins, loving how effortless it was to make her laugh and smile and cry.

And she felt like she was at home whenever Seulgi’s arms were around her, comforting, protecting, soothing her.

But Seulgi was one of her good, close friends. No relationships had occurred among their friend group, and Irene rarely heard anything positive blossoming between two good friends in a group of four or more. It would all come crashing down eventually, should a breakup happen. The group would break apart, dividing them into two, forcing the rest of them to choose a side—this one or that one. _Am I on this person’s side, or am I on_ this _person’s side?_

Thus, Irene didn’t want that to happen to her friend group. No matter what attraction she feels for Seulgi, it is not like it is overbearing. She believed she could overcome this because she usually did. All the fleeting feelings she felt for people who were attractive at school usually went away within a few days or so, and it might be the same for Seulgi. It was just unusual for Irene to have felt this way when she had known Seulgi for about two years now. Where and how did these feelings manifest? Why did it have to happen now?

_So confusing…_

Two nights before the group had to leave for the train to Canada they decided to drink and play a few games in the living room. They had pushed most of the furniture aside so they can sit in a circle on the hardwood floor.

One of the games was Never Have I Ever, and Irene learned _a lot_ more about her friends than she wanted to (don’t even get her started on Suho…her cousin for fuck’s sake).

“Alright, how about for this round, we don’t put our fingers down. We take shots instead!” a giggly Joy suggested.

“You are going to black the fuck out first,” said Yeri, who barely drank.

Seulgi, who was sitting next to Irene as per usual with their backs against the couch, slung her arms back on top of the cushions. They were the only two against the couch, so it looked natural, the view of them as a couple, that is.

“Who knows, it might actually be Suho,” Seulgi chimed in. She giggled at the sight of his horrified expression. “Dude’s kinkier than we expect.”

Irene stretched out her legs and shifted onto one side of her body, slightly facing Seulgi. The movement had closed a few inches of their gap, and it made it easier for her to smack Seulgi on her stomach.

“Hey, he’s still my cousin and it’s uncomfortable to know all the weird things he had done,” she muttered.

Seulgi had winced. She was soothing the minimal pain on her stomach with the hand that was not resting behind Irene.

Suho’s brow raised. “Don’t act like you’re the only innocent one here, Rene.”

“SooooOOooooOoooo, we gonna drink this round or what? I ain’t hearin’ any objections!” interjected Joy.

“Well, I mean…what else are we going to do with all this alcohol?” asked Wendy.

The group grumbled, but they still didn’t object to the idea of drinking this round. Whoever had done the deed of whomever said they hadn’t done had to take a shot of their choosing. Among them in the center of the circle were bottles of soju, sake, wine coolers, and hard lemonade, courtesy of a few strings Joy pulled at the local supermarket. Irene discovered her liking for soju, so she stuck with it for this round.

Joy shot a hand up to the ceiling. “I’ll go first! Never have I ever eaten a girl out!”

Irene glanced at everyone else—Suho obviously wasn’t going to drink, Yeri was sitting with her arms locked over her knees, no signs of her moving, Wendy was slowly inching towards her shot glass, and Seulgi casually reached down to her own. Both Wendy and Seulgi downed the shot.

Irene watched the entire movement of Seulgi tipping the shot cup into her mouth before setting it back down onto the floor with a hiss. She poured herself another glass of strawberry soju.

Seulgi had been with another girl to that extent before?

That was…quite fascinating to know…

“Didn’t know you were… _that_ active,” Irene softly said.

Seulgi averted her gaze down onto Irene, who was now leaning on the arm resting behind her. She smirked. “There are a lot of things you still don’t know about me, Bae.”

Irene quickly looked away and didn’t know how to deal with that information, so she kept mum and allowed her cheeks to burn.

The game continued and the topic was becoming more sexual than Irene had thought. She hadn’t been with many people before nor had she done anything further than kissing and maybe a little bit of groping here and there, so she didn’t drink much either. Joy and Seulgi were on par with each other, having done the most what others hadn’t. Joy was a lot more sluggish now; none of that excited, silly bullshit. Seulgi, on the other hand, was a tired, giggly drunk, but more so tired. Wendy and Suho were next down in terms of their activities, and then Yeri and Irene.

“Well, let’s take these sluts back to their room,” said Yeri.

They hadn’t even finished the game, but Joy and Seulgi were a bit freakier than they thought. Joy was sprawled on the wooden floor, mumbling incoherent words, and Seulgi had turned her body and pulled Irene into an embrace, trapping her.

“Um…” Irene started, staring at Yeri. Drunk Seulgi was resting her head on the crook of Irene’s neck and was almost going to sit on her. “Might be a little difficult bringing this one.”

Wendy audibly sighed. She was getting quite exhausted from all this drinking, and frankly, she might need to puke later.

“I’ll deal with this one,” she muttered, crawling over to Joy. “Lend me a hand, Yeri?”

As Yeri went over to help Wendy carry Joy back to the room, Suho walked over to Irene and Seulgi.

“You good?” Suho asked, and Irene knew it was about her state.

“Yeah, didn’t drink much,” Irene answered. “Let’s get this heavy bear off me, yeah?”

Suho chuckled and bent down to remove Seulgi’s arms around Irene, but she wouldn’t budge. In fact, Seulgi had whined at the push and pull from both Irene and Suho and only clung onto Irene harder. Suho tried one more time, grabbing at Seulgi’s arm that was around Irene’s waist now, but the girl’s grip was surprisingly tight in her state.

“Wow, she really doesn’t want to let go of you,” he remarked.

Irene huffed. “She probably thinks I’m her pillow or something.”

“Okay, well, if she doesn’t want to let go, let’s try and stand you up, then?”

Irene nodded, and they worked together to stand up in the position that she was in. They had to push Seulgi’s lower half of her body away from Irene for the latter to properly stand up. Of course, Seulgi still clung onto Irene with her arms, but at least she didn’t try to stay glued to the ground.

The trek back to her room was difficult to say the least, but they finally managed to get Seulgi onto the king-sized bed next to Joy. And, obviously, with Irene pulled down on top of Seulgi due to the iron grip around her.

“Dude, you’re gonna have to sleep with her,” Suho said.

“Are you kidding me?”

Suho shook his head. “She won’t let go of you, and when we try to pull her away, she whines. A lot.”

Irene sighed into Seulgi’s neck. Seulgi was lightly snoring now with her hands clasped on Irene’s lower back. Unconscious or not, she didn’t seem to mind having the entirety of Irene’s weight on top of her.

“Okay, I guess,” her voice became muffled.

Suho only chuckled at her and the entirety of this situation before retreating to the other room to wash up. Few moments later, Wendy emerged from the bathroom all clean and changed, and walked to the bed. Upon the sight of Irene on top of Seulgi next to Joy, she halted in her tracks.

“Um…what the heck?”

Irene turned her head to look at Wendy. “I’ll get off once she’s dead asleep.”

“Okay, but like…why are you on top of her.”

“She’s not letting go of me no matter how much Suho and I try, so I’ll just let her be for now.”

Wendy laughed, amused.

“I’m going to head to the other room, then. Just sleep here.”

Irene nodded. “Thanks.”

After Wendy left with the door closed behind her, Irene averted her gaze back to the two sleeping drunkards. Joy was taking up half of the bed with how she was positioned, arms above her head and legs bent and spread out. She was knocked out cold by the sight of her chest steadily heaving up and down.

Seulgi…oh, Seulgi. Hands still locked behind Irene with her breathing a little quicker than usual. She wasn’t quite sleeping yet, at least, she hadn’t entered into a deep sleep, so Irene kept her focus on her in case anything happened.

_Adorable,_ she thought. _Whiny, but adorable._

Irene leaned back as much as she could, admiring the sight of a sleeping and peaceful Seulgi beneath her.

Now that she thought about it, it was everything. Everything about her. Her face, her actions, her smile, her laugh, her eyes. Irene became oddly attracted to her out of nowhere.

Had she always been attracted to her?

Maybe she just realized it now.

Maybe back then it was only subtle things like “Oh, yeah, Seulgi’s pretty. That’s a no-brainer,” and “Seulgi looks really good in that outfit.”

But now, it seemed like it became “Seulgi’s really pretty when she smiles at me like that. I want to make her smile more,” and “I want to be next to her, so I should talk to her until she doesn’t really have a choice but to be with me.”

Irene tilted her head down.

She sighed.

If that was the case, why did it have to be Seulgi?

The next morning, Irene woke up in between Joy and Seulgi. They were all facing one way—Joy’s back was to Irene, and Irene’s back was to Seulgi. Except what was extremely intimate about this was how flushed Irene was against Seulgi’s front, the latter’s arm curling around her body from the waist up to her chest. Seulgi’s head was bent in an awkward position where her face was buried in Irene’s hair, breathing on her neck.

Irene was glad she had woken up before Joy and Seulgi did (there was no telling to what Joy would do with this information or how Seulgi would react). She carefully slithered out from Seulgi’s grip and pushed her head back into a more comfortable position on the pillow. Seulgi made some noises, but she went with the motions and adjusted herself.

The door to the room swung open not that much later. Immediately, the heavenly smell of bacon slithered its way into the room, swirling around Irene’s nose.

“Goooooooooooooood morning!” Suho cheerfully greeted.

Irene didn’t even have a hangover, but her head was splitting at Suho’s loud voice.

“Geez, why are you so loud for in the morning…”

“Last day in Seattle before we head up to Vancouver! Aren’t you excited?” He pattered into the room and stood next to Joy, swinging a hand down onto her leg. “Wake up!”

Joy jolted awake from the impact and hissed in pain—both from Suho and from the hangover she was feeling.

“Holy shit… My head hurts so much…!”

Before Suho could do the same to Seulgi, Irene turned over to the girl and gently shook her arm. “Seulgi, Seulgi, wake up.”

After a few more shakes that increasingly became harder, Seulgi finally woke up, gradually peeling her eyelids open. She squinted at Irene and groaned, placing a hand up to her temple.

“Ugh, my head hurts…”

The rest of the day had to be adjusted to accommodate Joy and Seulgi’s headaches from the lack of water the night before, which meant attempting to avoid sunlight and loud areas as much as possible. After eating breakfast made by Wendy and Yeri and trying to go about the rest of the day, they returned home early that night to pack for the trip up to Vancouver, Canada.

Pajamas. Check.

Day clothes. Check.

Hygiene products. Check.

Charger. Check.

Passport…

“Passport?” Irene mumbled. She rummaged through her luggage slowly at first until it became more frantic when she couldn’t find it easily. “Where’s my passport?”

She threw up everything that she had packed neatly and nicely to find the little blue booklet, only to no avail. There was no way she forgot to pack her passport. How could she be that forgetful? She was sure she did the same checklist before she left her house to the airport!

“Yeri, Suho, have you seen my passport?” she asked the two, who were also packing on the other side of the room.

“No,” said Yeri, folding a summer dress into her backpack.

“You didn’t forget it at home, did you?” asked Suho.

“No, I swear I brought it with me!” Irene exclaimed.

She sat there, sulking. There was no telling how many times she had looked through her suitcase and backpack, practically flipping it inside out, too. It could only mean one thing—she really did forget it at home. Her mother confirmed it five minutes later after a phone call.

“What are we going to do?” Yeri sullenly questioned. “You can’t get into Canada without a passport…”

Irene shrugged. “I mean, there’s nothing we can do. I’ll just have to stay here until you guys come back.”

“I don’t want to leave you here…” Suho said. “I mean…we don’t have to go to Vancouver, right? We can always just reschedule.”

Irene shook her head. “No, you all bought the train tickets and everything. Just because I forgot my passport, doesn’t mean you have to cut this trip short.”

Yeri and Suho sat there with little pouts on their faces, obviously bummed by the idea of Irene not being able to join them on the remainder of this trip.

“Hey guys?”

They all looked up to see Seulgi walking into the room while scratching the back of her neck.

“So, uh…funny thing…” she started. “I kind of left my passport in my brother’s car when he dropped me off at the airport…”

“What!?” Yeri and Suho exclaimed.

Irene only stared at Seulgi, eyes widened.

“Yeah, so…I can’t go up to Canada anymore…ha ha. I already told Joy and Wendy when we were packing earlier,” Seulgi chuckled awkwardly. “I’m so sorry. I can’t believe how dense I can be even at this time, and I—”

“It’s okay, Seulgi. I forgot my passport, too.”

“You what?”

As tough as it was, the decision was made to leave Seulgi and Irene back in Seattle while the rest ventured up to Vancouver. They didn’t have much of a choice anyway, and Seulgi and Irene weren’t the ones to hold them back from more fun.

_At least they have each other_.

Irene and Seulgi dropped off the rest at the train station before heading back to their stay. They kind of saw what they needed to see already in Seattle, so they lounged about back at home, opting to watch a few movies on Netflix instead.

“Anything you’re interested in?” Irene asked.

Seulgi shook her head and just observed the Netflix selection screen scroll through the genres by Irene.

“Okay, choose a number between one and fifteen.”

“Six.”

Scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll.

Adult Drama & Romance.

Irene stared at the screen a little bit longer, only to realize that a lot of the movie screencap images were inconspicuous positions of sex.

“UM!” she involuntarily squeaked.

She scrolled down to the next genre.

Action & Adventure Recommended for You.

Ah, yes. Much better.

“L-Let’s just watch an action movie,” suggested Irene.

Seulgi looked at her from the side with hooded eyes and a smirk. “What, you don’t want to watch two adults fall in love with each other and make love? It’s romance.”

“I-It’s not romance, trust me.”

“How would you know? Have you watched one of them?”

Irene felt her cheeks warm up. “N-No!”

Seulgi laughed. “Alright. Whatever. Let’s just watch _Black Panther_ or something.”

Irene was glad Seulgi only left it at that. They gradually sunk into a comfortable silence to watch _Black Panther_ , and since the two of them had watched it already and enjoyed it, they didn’t have to pay attention as much.

About ten minutes later, both their phones chimed aloud, indicating a message went through from Messenger. Irene looked at her phone first.

“Wendy sent a photo,” she informed. As she opened the attachment, it was a picture of Wendy, Joy, Yeri, and Suho looking into the camera (smiling or making weird faces) by a train station. “They made it to Vancouver already.”

Seulgi leaned over close to Irene to look at the picture. “Aw, cool. Glad they made it safely.”

“Yup,” Irene agreed.

“Still a bit bummed that we both forgot our passports, but it’s okay. We can always try to go next year,” said Seulgi.

“I heard it’s nice going in the winter. We can probably try going this winter or next winter?” suggested Irene.

Seulgi smiled at Irene. She put her arms back on the couch, one of them resting behind the other girl.

“Let’s just do next winter. Tickets are probably more expensive if we try and buy the ones for this year.”

Irene agreed by nodding her head. They soon fell into a comfortable silence, directing their attention back onto the TV screen. Every now and then they would check their phones just to check—social media, mobile games, etc. _Black Panther_ was a movie they had already watched in theaters as a group when it was released, nonetheless it was still enjoyable.

She wondered if the rest of their summer trip was going to be like this. Her lounging about with Seulgi in Seattle until the others came back so they could catch their flight back home. If so, it felt like it was going to be awfully long.

Until Seulgi turned to her and said, “Do you want to drink?”

From the fridge, Seulgi grabbed a few bottles of wine coolers that were leftover from the night they played drinking games. Irene didn’t seem the harm in drinking, especially an alcoholic beverage as low as 4%. She discovered that her tolerance level was about medium (she can’t say for sure if it was high because she hadn’t drunk past that point to know). Seulgi graciously uncapped Irene’s wine cooler before handing it to her, settling down onto the couch to uncap her own.

“So, have you been interested in anyone lately?”

Seulgi’s gentle, warm voice carried over the action scene taking place during the movie. Although they were both staring at the TV screen, their minds paid attention elsewhere.

Irene took a sip of the peach bellini flavored wine cooler before lowering it down onto her lap, scratching the wrapper with the tip of her fingernail.

The last person she was sort of, keyword _sort of_ , interested in was debate captain Bogum Park. The two were paired up together in their advanced biology class to work on a research paper, and it was more than enough for Irene to understand Bogum deep down to the core. She was only _sort of_ interested in him because he was attractive, but frankly, Irene never had a good vibe around him. His aura was intense, almost like it wanted to suck in anyone near him and have them crumble to their knees before him.

She sat on the other side of class the day the research paper was due, not wanting to deal with someone who made her indirectly uncomfortable.

And well, since then, Irene guessed the latest person she was interested in was Seulgi.

“Not really,” she finally said.

She felt Seulgi slightly turn her head to chance a glance at her.

“Interesting,” Seulgi mumbled.

“What about you?”

“Hm. Kind of.”

“Kind of?”

“Kind of.”

Irene scratched the wrapper some more. It ripped a tiny bit, courtesy of the condensation building around the glass.

“Why kind of?” she asked.

Seulgi tipped her drink into her mouth, completely downing it. She sat it onto the coffee table in front of them before swiping another one off the wood.

“Just, you know,” Seulgi said softly, eyes fixed onto the screen. She shrugged. “Kind of.”

Irene huffed and rolled her eyes before taking another sip. She wasn’t even halfway, yet here Seulgi was, drinking to her heart’s content.

“Can I know who you’re _kind of_ interested, then, at least?”

Seulgi whipped her head around to completely face Irene, which caught the latter off guard. The movie was entirely forgotten and played in the background now. Seulgi slid closer to Irene until their thighs were touching and swung an arm around onto the headrest behind Irene, smirking.

“You really want to know?” she asked in a teasing manner.

Irene felt small in the corner of the couch with how Seulgi was acting. She blinked a few times, tearing her gaze away from the strong, smoldering one belonging to the other girl.

“I mean, if you want to tell me…”

“What if…” Seulgi whispered. She sat her drink down onto the floor in front of them and lifted her legs onto the cushions. “…I said it was you?”

The second those words entered Irene’s ears, she felt her body become completely immobile. She couldn’t tell if her heart was beating, if she was breathing, if she was hearing right. A slightly dry lump went down her throat as she gulped, and when she was taking her time to process the words some more, she felt the ends of her hair moving about. Seulgi was playing around with her hair, waiting.

“I-I’d think you’re lying…” Irene finally mustered out.

She heard a small puff of air emit from Seulgi’s nose, sounding like she laughed a little bit. A finger mildly pushed her chin to face Seulgi.

“You know I don’t lie, though.”

Irene’s wavering eyes settled onto Seulgi’s, whose eyes like chocolate and hooded lids captivate effortlessly. She was already _so_ close to begin with, and the fact that was she leaning in some more made Irene’s breathing uneven.

Seulgi stopped leaning in a few inches before Irene’s face. Her mouth curved upwards. “I think you’re interested in me.”

Irene let out a breath of air, which only sounded awkward. “What makes you think that?”

“You,” Seulgi simply said. “ _You_ make me think that.”

‘ _You’ was right_ , because Irene was darn interested.

The lack of refutation was enough.

Irene leaned in to finish what Seulgi started, pressing her mouth against hers, molding their lips together. With this physical evidence, Seulgi smiled into the kiss.

The next morning, Irene woke up to the heat seeping into their stay, making her rise from her slumber. She placed a hand down behind her whereas the other rubbed at her tired eyes.

“Morning…”

Irene’s eyes almost popped open at the groggy voice next to her. She made a quick turn to assess the situation before her, realizing that she and Seulgi had slept together in a bed. And no, it wasn’t just them two sleeping side by side in one bed after drinking and sharing a kiss.

They _slept_ together.

Irene glanced beneath her and saw her bare skin, hastily bunching up the blankets to cover her body. Seulgi, on the other hand, continued to lay on her side of the bed with her arms raised above her head, blankets down to her hips.

Right…

They didn’t stop at all last night. They kept kissing and kissing, and Irene allowed lust take over her body and Seulgi spurred her on and it was only just them two and they had drunk so many wine coolers and, and –

Irene heaved a sigh and palmed her face before running it up and over her disheveled hair.

Seulgi rose from the bed and placed her chin on Irene’s bare shoulder. Her warm hand crept underneath the blankets to caress Irene’s tummy.

“I don’t know about you…but I don’t intend for this to be a one-time thing.”

Irene hadn’t realized that this _thing_ that just happened between her and Seulgi would have been a one-night stand type of situation until the latter dispelled it. Seulgi was not awkward about this at all the morning after, which definitely demonstrated that she wasn’t thinking that this was a mistake.

And frankly, Irene didn’t think it was either.

No guilt, no shame, no questions of self-worth.

She carefully turned her head, so as to not abruptly shrug off Seulgi, and evaluated her _now_ lover.

Seulgi was only warmly smiling at her.

_What are you thinking?_

_What goes on in your mind?_

Irene didn’t have enough time to think about the well-oiled cogs gearing up in Seulgi’s head. Instead, Seulgi delivered a snarky grin before pushing Irene down onto the foot of the bed, smothering her into another kiss.

Irene couldn’t help but give in.

She did this to herself.

She took the first step towards Seulgi where the latter was only lingering about with an approachable air around her.

She continued that second step with intimate gestures, holding onto Seulgi’s arm, hand, shoulder.

She continued that third step and engaged in somewhat deep and personal conversations with Seulgi.

All of this, she did it herself.

And she didn’t know that the entire time, Seulgi was wrapping her around her finger, trapping her, enchanting her.

Making her fall fast.

Deep.

Hard.


End file.
